I put my walk of the Garment District on hold as many of the museums are having their Private Members nights before the holidays get into the full swing. It gives the members a chance to really enjoy the museums before the City gets crazy with tourists and people are beginning to return to the City.
My first event that I attended was “The Met After Hours” event. It was a well-attended event that members were able to explore the first floor at their own leisure for three hours.
It really was a wonderful night. First it was a warm and clear evening and you could see the stars because it gets dark at 5:00pm. We as members got to the museum before 5:00pm and waited in a long line by the Member’s Entrance on the side of the museum and had to show our COVID vaccine cards and ID. Even though we were all vaccinated, we still had to wear masks the entire time we were in the museum. It was not a problem and did not get in the way of us having a nice time.
For the evening, only the first floor was open and only certain galleries and exhibitions but there was plenty to see and do. In all the galleries, there were docents giving talks on the exhibitions and on the gallery displays that were permanent to the museum.
I started my tour of the museum at the Christmas Tree in the Medieval Galleries. It was decorated for the holidays with full detail but it had been corded off and you could not get as close to it as you once could in the past. They had a very interesting docent who went over the not just the history of the Christmas tree with its German-Pagan roots but how it was decorated by people in different countries at different times of history.
The beautiful Christmas tree is a part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art tradition
She talked about how the manager and the more religious aspects of the art came from Naples and then made its way to the United States with immigration. The works around the tree were collected over time.
Later that evening, they had a singing trio entertaining the crowd with festive Christmas songs. The ladies were very friendly and had wonderful voices. They really put everyone in the Christmas spirit.
I next went to the “In Praise of Painting: Dutch Masterpieces at the Met” exhibition in the Robert Lehman Collection. I was viewing all the works by Rembrandt and Vermeer for most of the evening. It was nice to just take my time and look at the works one by one without rushing like you normally do when the galleries are busy. The gallery was full of portraits and still lives and being a smaller gallery, I was not over-whelmed by the exhibition.
In Praise of Painting: Dutch Masterpieces at The Met should not be missed.
I walked through the American Wing to the American Wing Cafe which was mobbed. Every table was taken and what was really annoying is that in some cases, one person took a table and threw all their things on the chairs and were eating by themselves. They should have had a limit on that type of behavior as I could see that patrons were struggling to find a place to sit down. I just decided to eat when I left the museum. A $16.00 sandwich did not interest me. I just could not believe how much the food had gone up at the museum.
I spent the last part of the evening in the Temple of Dendur Wing admiring the building. I looked over all the ancient carvings and symbols and then realizing that this temple was created during the Roman Era. I thought that was interesting. I remember reading in the book “Dancing with Mummies” on the former director of the museum discussing how New York City beat out other cities to get the temple.
Every time I enter the gallery I think of this scene in “When Harry Met Sally”
It represents what is best about the Met
I ended the evening exploring the Greek Galleries since the rest of the Egyptian Galleries were closed for the evening. I really loved looking at the Cycladic Art and the way that the galleries are displayed. Even though I have been touring these galleries since they opened, it is always fun to see something new or a piece that you noticed for the first time again.
There is something unique about Cycladic Art
After I left the Met, I walked along the Upper East Side, walking down both Third and Second Avenues and noticing all the restaurants and stores that have closed since the Pandemic and it was scary to see. I thought that Madison Avenue was bad with all the empty stores and the cops protecting them but the other avenues were just as bad. It will take a long time for this to come back.
When I reached East 72nd Street at Second Avenue, I stopped at one of my favorite Chinese Take-out places where you can sit down and eat, Shanghai Chinese Restaurant at 1388 Second Avenue right near the subway station. I am telling you this is some of the best Chinese food in the City and very reasonable for the portion size they give you (see my reviews on TripAdvisor and DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com).
Don’t miss Shanghai Chinese Restaurant at 1388 Second Avenue
I had the most amazing Shrimp Szechuan with Roast Pork Fried Rice with a side of Hot and Sour soup, the perfect dishes on a cool night. The soup really warmed me up and the shrimp had a nice fiery flavor to it.
The inside of Shanghai Chinese Restaurant
I was so content from the wonderful meal that I ended up walking all the way back to the Port Authority. It was such a nice night to walk back and enjoy the cool air. It really a beautiful night to walk around Manhattan.
After I returned from visiting my mother for her 85th birthday, I had another Members Night at the Museum of the City of New York at 1220 Fifth Avenue to attend the gallery talk of the Founders of the Talking Heads singing group, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, talking about their time with the group and their experiences. Then we watched the film documentary “Stop Making Sense”, which was filmed over a series of concerts in 1984. The talk and the film were both amazing. I never knew that much about the group, so it was an eye-opener.
The Museum of the City of New York at 1220 Fifth Avenue
Ms. Weymouth and Mr. Frantz had gotten older but really had not changed that much. They were really engaging and such interesting stories about the band and the clubs that they played in the early 1980’s. It was fascinating to hear of the other artists that they knew like Debbie Harry and the Ramones who played the same clubs and the long-closed clubs that they enjoyed like Danceatiria and the Mudd Club.
They also talked about the work they are doing now and the revival of the music that they performed so long ago. It was a real blast from the past and most of the audience like me were either in high school or college when the group was performing so it was a real Gen X crowd that evening. After the talk, they left the stage with a rousing applause from all of us and then we watched the documentary, which really rocked the room. I could almost see people wanted to get up and dance and the applause from the songs after they were finished matched what was going on in the film (I included the link to the film we watched below).
The “Stop Making Sense” talk and showing of the film with Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth
The ‘Stop Making Sense’ talk at the Museum of the City of New York: The Concert Film we saw that night.
“Stop Making Sense”
I went home that evening humming all the songs that I remembered from the film. It was such a great evening and I still could not believe that I never saw the film when it came out my freshman year of college.
Still my favorite videos from the early MTV days: “Once in a Lifetime”
The last museum Members afternoons that I attended was the “Sharks” exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History at 200 Central Park West. This exhibition was open to the members first before opening later in December.
The American Museum of Natural History at 200 Central Park West
I have to say it was interesting and very scientific and technical. I was floored by the number of kids that knew so much about sharks. I was listening to this kid talk to his mother on which sharks were which and he was about eight years old.
The exhibition was on the history of sharks and their habitats and the benefits that sharks bring to the ocean like being bottom dwellers and how their eating habits affect the rest of the ocean population. It was more than the movie “Jaws”.
The exhibition also discussed how sharks have evolved over the years since the era of the dinosaurs and how their population decrease is affecting the rest of the ocean population and food cycles. After about an hour in the exhibition it got a bit over-whelming with the information and I will have to go back again to see it.
‘Sharks’ at the American Museum of Natural History
The exhibition discussion:
After the visiting other parts of the museum in both the Central American Wing and the new Minerals gallery, I went outside and enjoyed the nice sunny day. I ended up walking all over the Upper West Side. Homes were decorated for the holidays and it was festive to see all the garland and trees in the windows and on the outside of the brownstone homes.
For lunch, I went to Tri Dim West, the sister restaurant to Tri Dim Shanghai on the East side at 467 Columbus Avenue for a Dim Sum lunch. The restaurant is right around the corner from the museum and was a nice alternative to the expensive fare at the museum.
I had the most wonderful (but pricy) Dim Sum lunch with freshly made Crab & Pork Soup Dumplings, Roast Pork Buns, Chicken Curry Puffs and a Peking Duck Spring Roll. Everything was made fresh to order and one dish was better than the other. The soup dumplings just slurped off the spoon and burst in my mouth with their juiciness. The roast pork buns had their usual sweetness with the combination of roast pork chopped up wrapped in a sweet dough.
The Peking Duck rolls are delicious
The service was so friendly and welcoming. The guy waiting on me kept spooning the dumplings on my plate. I thought that was taking it to the extreme but it was a quiet afternoon.
It is funny for the people who keep saying that New York City is going downhill and Manhattan is falling apart, yet I see that the museums are doing their best to engage with their members and the public in general with taking all sorts of precautions and safety measures. They are doing their best to keep the public informed while still having a good time.
With the holidays now in full swing, I decided to usher out the Halloween holidays with its haunted houses and cemetery walks and usher in the Christmas holiday season with cheerful music and almost too much holiday decorating and shopping which gets more rushed earlier and earlier after midnight on Halloween. It gets to be over-whelming!
After a holiday of house decorating contests, visiting local farms to take pictures for my retail blog and the Halloween Parade in the City, the Midnight hour hit on Halloween night and I swear there was Christmas. I was even at one merchant’s store on Halloween morning and he was changing his Halloween window display to Christmas on the morning of the downtown merchants ‘Trick or Treating’ event. When I asked him why, he said, “This is the nature of the business right now.”
My weekend morning meant setting up for the Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association Christmas Tree sale on Jefferson and Terrace in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ. This annual rite is our biggest fundraising of the year and has become part of a tradition in many families as the whole family will come to the site even with baby carriages and dogs to buy a tree so that everyone gets a choice. It is nice to see the same faces every year and now I even hear from people that I sold them a tree when they were kids and now, they are buying one for their apartment in the City (thanks for making me feel ‘old’ everyone).
Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association Christmas tree set up
Day One Hundred & Twenty-Six: Christmas Tree Sales:
We got there at 8:00am in the morning, cleaning the site of leaves and branches and setting up the Christmas shed and all the tree stands. We worked until noon and then finished with a pizza lunch as a group. Christmas trees will be arriving next Friday and then it’s off to the races in selling 400 trees, a new record for us.
I went home and then it was off to the City to watch the end of the Michigan State versus Ohio State football game. What a bloodbath! They walked all over us. By the time I made it up to Blondies, the bar on the Upper West Side that the Alumni meet at everyone was gone but a small handful of people who are the hangers on to the end. The final score was 56-7 and it was a disaster with many of our players hurt. So much for the playoffs.
Since I got to the bar with only two minutes left in the game and getting there just in time to see Ohio State score again, I left after the game ended. There were not that many people left in the bar at that point and only two Ohio State alumni were in the bar singing their fight song. I was off to Brooklyn to go to the “Lightscape” show at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the “Andy Warhol” show at the Brooklyn Museum. Getting to Brooklyn was a labor in love as all the subways were rerouted for maintenance.
“Lightscape” is a new event at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden
I had to change subways twice before I finally got the Number 2 into Brooklyn. Then it was a quick run to the Brooklyn Museum. Once I got to the museum, it was no problem getting in once I passed the COVID protocols.
I went to see the “Andy Warhol: Revelation” which was combination of his later works, his movies and his personal life both in Pittsburgh and in New York.
I never realized first how religious he was in his personal life and how it affected his art later on. Also, I knew that he had a close relationship with his mother and she lived with him but never knew she had assisted him with his art and how talented she was as an artist.
Andy Warhol and his mother in portrait in the “Andy Warhol: Revelation” exhibition
The exhibition featured some of his paintings from his “Last Supper” collection which he painted before he passed away. These interesting large pastel paintings again showed his religious side and portrayed Di Vinci’s “Last Supper” in a more exaggerated form. He kept the context but added color.
Warhol’s “Last Supper”
I finished my tour of the exhibition by watching part of “Chelsea Girls” one of his most famous films (I still have to admit I do not understand the movie and I watch it at the Museum of Modern Art for a couple of hours) and still did not get the point of the film. I have sat through a retrospect of his films and I have to admit, you really need to think about what he is saying because it can be challenging.
A clip from “Chelsea Girls”
After I left the Warhol exhibition, I walked around the American Galleries and then went down to see the rest of the museum. Several floors either were not open or you had to pay for the ‘Dior’ exhibition. I never remember the Brooklyn Museum charging people to see special exhibitions but I suspect COVID has changed it. Still, it was nice to see the Warhol exhibition before it opened to the public.
I got to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden right on time at 7:00pm to start the “Lightscape” tour of the garden. It was amazing!
Highlights from the “Lightscape”:
Lightscape 2021
This video gives just a short glimpse into what “Lightscape” showcased in the Gardens
It was an hour long walk in the gardens following a path around the perimeter of the Gardens starting at the new Washington Street entrance. What an amazing way to walk the Gardens at night. The lightshow really showcased the beauty of the gardens and its layout.
The colored lights by the Japanese Gardens
Visitors were guided on a path around the gardens that was cordoned off and then lit with colorful lights and music. Here and there props were added to open spots in the gardens for an experience of lights and sounds.
“Shunkashuto” in the Japanese Gardens
When you entered the Gardens, you were greeted by light jazz museum to colorful yellow and purple lights adorning the trees. As a group of us rounded the corner into the Japanese Gardens, we were greeted by a lightshow of multiple lights and spotlights enhancing both the garden’s trees and pond. It really lit up the water.
“Shunkashuto” in the Japanese Gardens
As you exited the Japanese Gardens, more lights lit the pathway to the Greenhouses and pools where interesting water sculptures that looked like floating Locusts lined the pools and kept lighting up to appear to be a flower opening.
The restaurants and cafes in this section of the Gardens were open that night but the lines were tremendous and the menu limited plus it was so cool out that I did not want to eat a meal outside but many people did not have a problem with this. The tables at the Yellow Magnolia Restaurant were packed with people eating.
The Magnolia Tree garden lit for the Lightscape event
I proceeded through the Gardens past light features of what looked like surrealist flowers lit in all sorts of colors with the sounds of Christmas jazz in the background. The flowers changed colors as the music played and I took my time to watch the flowers change from vibrant color to another.
These floral sculptures sway to light Christmas Jazz music (2021)
As I walked through of the Gardens, I walked past more trees that had been lit in green, purple and yellow showcasing trees that just a few months ago had been surrounded by crocuses, daffodils and tulips in all their beauty as Spring moved into Summer. In 2023, the ‘Hanabi’ sculpture, just off Daffodil Hill, was playing Christmas song as the lights and movements swayed around.
‘Hanabi’ sculpture in January 2023
‘Hanabi’ sculpture in January 2023
‘Hanabi’ sculpture in January 2023
‘Hanabi’ sculpture in January 2023
I felt like “Alice in Wonderland” walking under these stars
Just past the ‘Hanabi’ sculpture with the music still playing in the background, the brightly lit “Windseeds” were glowing in the distance. They looked like seeds that you would blow off a dandelion after it has dried out. These brightly lit stars lit the way to the Lilly Ponds.
Artist Norman Mooney created “Windseeds”
The “Windseeds”
The ‘Windseeds’
When I got to the Lily Ponds, the “Night Lilly” sculptures were out and did not light up even though the music was playing. The restaurant was pretty busy with people ordering hot drinks and sandwiches and pretzels. It was a cool night so I was a little thrown when people were eating outside.
When I left the restaurant and the Lily Ponds, I passed ‘A Magic of the Season’, a musically review sculpture that twisted and turned with the lights. It played the most wonderful seasonal music and its complexity changed with the colors.
‘A Magical Season’ in full color
From “A Magical Season” still playing in the distance, I could see and hear the song that made the “Light like Water” play and with each verse in the song, the pyramid changed colors and designs. I was so fascinated by it and by the song that sounded so post-COVID about recovery that I stayed three times to hear it all the way through and watch the colors. It was mesmerizing.
‘Light Like Water’ by artist Masha Tsimring
The glass pyramid “Light Like Water” at one of its various points of light and color in the song
The pyramid kept changing colors
They pyramid halfway through the song
Further down the path at the southernmost part of the park were the “Nightbirds” who soared across the trees in that part of the part near where the Herb and Rock Gardens were located.
‘Nightbirds’ were colorful as they soared above the gardens
Heading back towards the Main Lawn was the sculpture “What if?” as if it was questioning why we were in the gardens and what was our purpose.
“What if?” lights the way by the Rock Garden
On the way back and passing the Main Lawn where the water features are located was the interesting large flowers of the sculptures of “Bloom”. These colorful flowers were set to the background of trees that kept changing colors and were a blaze of brillant colors.
The beauty of “Bloom”
‘Bloom’ changing colors
The surrounding trees kept changing colors around “Bloom” adding to its complexity.
Next to ‘Bloom’, the ‘Neon Tree’ dazzling everyone with a variety of lights that showed the context of the tree it decorated. I wish the artist had done more than one tree as it would have made an interesting forest.
The ‘Neon Tree’
‘Neon Tree’ up close
Passing the ‘Neon Tree’, there was a shot of lights and music that created a outdoor ‘Disco’ dance floor in the middle of the path. “Dancing Lights” would have been fun if the weather had been warmer and people could have boogied on down. It got colder by eight o’clock and the lights were in full swing. At least we could enjoy them by walking through them.
“Paloma” was a series of birds that were placed all over the trees and looked like a pigeon attack from the distance. These well-light birds covered the branches of the trees on my way to the ‘Winter Cathedral’, which was the signature work of art of the this walking exhibition.
‘Paloma’ from the ‘Neon Tree’ path and its approach
‘Paloma’ from up close
The ‘Winter Cathedral’ from a distance
Entering the “Winter Cathedral”
Walking through the “Winter Cathedral” is amazing
The top of the lights of the “Winter Cathedral”
The “Ghosts” once you leave the “Winter Cathedral”
“The Ghosts” of birds on the sidewalks
The path led to the Cherry Tree lawn where the best part of the light show took place. A light show awash with colors and sounds as the entire section of the lawn was lit and twinkled of lights and Christmas music and light jazz as all the trees and lawns created a spectacular display that entertained everyone who stopped. I was so taken by the display that I stayed for three entire shows of lights and sounds.
The “Fire Garden” in the Rose Garden Fountain
The “Neon Waves” in the Cherry Blossom lawn
We exited up the hill that overlooked the Cherry Blossom Lawn so that you could see the lightshow again from another perspective. It was even more interesting as you walked up the sidewalks that line the hill and could sit in the benches watching the show from above the lawn. Amazing!
The “Neon Waves” in the Cherry Blossom lawn
The “Neon Waves” in the Cherry Blossom lawn
The “Neon Waves” in the Cherry Blossom lawn
The “World of Color” is between the Cherry Trees
The “Aurora” at the end of the walk through the Brooklyn Botanical Garden
The “Aurora” was the end of the show and the lights overlooked the Cherry Blossom lawn and with all the Cherry Trees lit to capacity, the whole show had two different perspectives from both sides of the lawn and as you walked down the promenade.
This video of the Gardens by Caty Exterior really captures the show (I credit the blogger on this amazing video):
The video on the walk through the gardens
I exited the Gardens from the original entrance on Eastern Parkway and like everyone else who was leaving that evening, totally mesmerized by the light show we had just experienced. I was glad that I had seen the show early as the reporters and bloggers who I had probably been touring with had seen the show as well and everyone reported on it the next week. Online reviews were extremely enthusiastic.
After the show was over in 2021, I walked down Washington Avenue to find a place to have a snack. I came across Gino’s Cucina Brick Oven Pizzeria at 723 Washington Avenue. for a slice of pizza. The pizza was excellent with such a crisp crust and bottom and the sauce really tasted of fresh tomatoes. The only problem with the restaurant was that there was no place to eat inside and I ended up eating at one of the small tables outside and it had gotten cold as the evening progressed. It was nice to eat outside but my pizza got cold fast.
Gino’s Cucina Brick Oven Pizzeria at 723 Washington Place
After my snack, I took another walk around the neighborhood to see the lights of the Brooklyn Museum and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in the distance. It really had been a wonderful evening and I was glad that I experienced the light show and the art opening before they reached the general public and tickets then became hard to get. Not even a week after I visited both shows, they had been heavily reviewed in all the New York City papers so try to get tickets now.
In 2022, it was really getting cold out and I needed some chicken soup and I remembered North Dumpling and King Dumpling in Chinatown and wanted to stop in Chinatown for a quick snack. Thank God I chose North Dumpling first because as I walked back through Chinatown, King Dumpling had closed for the evening.
China North Dumpling at 27A Essex Street in Chinatown
I had to walk down many dark streets to the get to the restaurant which is on the other side of Chinatown. I ended up ordering the Steamed Wonton Noodle Soup ($6.95) and an order of Spring Rolls ($3.00). With a Coke the whole thing came to $11.00. That was my type of meal and talk about the soup warming you up.
The Spring Rolls at China North Dumping
The Steamed Wonton Noodle Soup I highly recommend at China North Dumpling in Chinatown
It was a nice end to a wonderful evening and even though it got cold, it was fun walking around Chinatown again. What really scared me is how rapidly the neighborhood is changing. It is getting very ‘hipster’. I am not sure if people are noticing.
The next evening, I drove up to Croton-on-the-Hudson for the last night of the Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze at the Van Cortlandt Manor. I have been to the show for many years and I even renewed my membership again to see the show one more time. This was the last night of the show before it closed for the season. Seeing a Christmas light show the night before made this visit rather strange as Halloween was over three weeks earlier. Still, it was an amazing walk through the grounds and the best part was there were no crowds!
I started the evening with dinner with my favorite restaurant right near the Van Cortlandt Manor, Dong Happy Gardens at 440 South Riverside Avenue. This wonderful Chinese restaurant is tucked into the Shoprite Mall next to the supermarket. The three times I have eaten here the food has been excellent (See review on TripAdvisor.com) and the service very friendly. The rules have been relaxed at the restaurant so you can eat in the booths now.
I had the Chicken and String beans with a side of Pork Fried Rice and an Egg Roll and everything was excellent. They served me a large portion of Chicken with freshly cooked string beans in a soy and Hunan sauce with had a nice hot and tangy flavor to it. The egg roll was filled with lots of chopped roast pork and cabbage and was perfectly fried. The combination plate was a nice sized dinner portion and warmed me up on a cool night.
The Chicken and Broccoli is excellent here
With the Christmas holidays in full swing, the festivities of Halloween are long behind us and since I chose the last night of the show at the last entry time of 8:00pm I pretty much had the walk all to myself. There must have been about fifty other people walking through the same time as myself and I could take extra time to look at the displays and enjoy the music.
The Van Cortlandt Manor is memorizing with the site of hundreds of lit pumpkins
Being so close to Thanksgiving, the newest pumpkins that had been carved were in the shape of turkeys and horns of plenty.
Welcome to the Blaze in 2022
Pumpkins with their own ideas in 2022
You were still greeted by the mysterious faces of Halloween but the last week of the event was themed to the upcoming holiday.
The “Tappan Scream Bridge” leads you into the displays
The show had not changed much since I had visited in late November last year. I entered through the Tappan Scream Bridge and saw all the carved pumpkins of fish swimming. I then passed the Ferris wheel of mysteries animals as they made their way around a circle.
The Headless Horseman Bridge was another bridge of wonder at the entrance of the grounds
Walking through the tunnel of lights is a fantastic sight
I made my way through the display passing the Headless Horseman Bridge and the Museum of Modern Art display which I thought was one of the most original parts of the show three years ago.
The Art Show:
Their version of Van Gogh’s “The Scream”
Their version of Di Vinci’s “The Mona Lisa”
Their version of Andy Warhol’s “Soup Cans”
Keith Haring in a pumpkin
Alexander Calder in 2022
I continued my walk through the display looking that the Ghost Circus Train that lead the way through the next part of the display showcasing all the circus animals that followed.
The Ghost Circus Train ablaze with animals
Once past the Ghost Circus Train I walked past the Ferris Wheel of Animals going round and round as it played an eerie tiny music. The animals grinned as they went through the cycle over and over again.
The path led past the Ferry House that once greeted guests on the Old Albany Post Road.
The Pumpkin Blacksmith in 2022
Then led to a series of Zodiac signs. I search for Libra and found it right in the middle of the display showing the balance that our sign represents.
The Pumpkin sign of Libra
The paths lead past creatures from the deep and the past as our crowd of visitors was greeted by the Lock Ness Monster and a series of dinosaurs that guarded the path on the way to the Van Cortlandt Manor House.
The Loch Ness Monster guards the paths to the deep
The dinosaurs roared and nodded as you walked past them showing their strength of character and lore.
The dinosaurs led the path to the next part of the display
As I got closer to the main house, there was a big display of the skyline of Manhattan with a display of the New York City skyline starting with the statue of Liberty and the Lower Manhattan skyline. I thought that was very creative.
The Statue of Liberty was very impressive as well was the skyline
I finally reached the Van Corlandt Manor lit to the hilt with colorful lights and a dazzling light show that was continuous. Before you entered the front of the manor, you are greeted by a mysterious clock that chimed and churned as it greeted you.
This grandfather clock chimes it way through the tour of the Van Cortlandt Manor
The manor house, which closes in September for the set up of the Blaze, was lit with a entertaining Light Show and music that greeted guests with a sinister undertone and greeting welcoming in the Halloween season. You have to wait to see the show twice not to miss anything.
Van Cortlandt Manor in all its dazzling glory for the Halloween holiday
Before leaving the last part of the Blaze, there is a well lit path of ghosts and ghouls and things that go bump in the night as you pass the Van Cortlandt cemetery and things from the past that guard them. There are all sorts of creatively carved pumpkins all over the lawn in front of the manor.
The Van Cortlandt Cemetery is on display as you exit the family home
Ghosts and Ghouls and things that go bump in the night
Paying respects to the Van Cortlandt Family patriot Steven Van Cortlandt
Pay respects to Catherine Van Wyck and Pierre Van Cortlandt
Exiting the Blaze, you will see all sorts of carved pumpkins and the rest of the Blaze in the distance. It will be another year to until the Blaze comes again but what a way to see it on its last glorious night. This is something you should not miss when coming to the Hudson River Valley during the Halloween season.
Me on the night of the Blaze. It was rather warm for this time of the year.
*I wanted to note that the prices have changed since the Pandemic started so please check their website for increases.
Just to let readers know this is the original Wonton Noodle Garden that used to be on Mott Street. It moved to this location when the landlord jacked the rents up so high that the restaurant was forced to me to its new location in 2023. The original location now has a restaurant that has the same name as the old one.
The food here is consistently excellent and here are some of my favorite dishes from the restaurant:
The General Tso’s Chicken here is excellent
They do not skimp on ingredients on the House Fried Rice and Lo Mein
The House Lo Mein is just as delicious
Don’t miss the Steamed Pork and Chive Dumplings. They are so tender.
Note: Wonton Noodle Garden moved from its long-time location at 56 Mott Street to 23 Pell Street in June 2023 after they lost their lease. They had been in that location for almost 50 years.
I have been coming to the Wonton Noodle Garden at 56 Mott Street since it opened in 1978. I remember coming here when I was in high school several times with my parents. The food all these years have been consistent and in all the times I have eaten here, the meals have been terrific.
The one thing I have always liked about the restaurant is that you can see the soups and dumplings being made from the front window. The gentleman who makes the soups has been there for years and I have watched him over all this time day after day when I visited Chinatown make soups with noodles and dumplings for customers all over the world.
*Authors note: The prices have gone up in the post-pandemic buy two or three dollars on most items. Still its much cheaper than most restaurants in the area.
San Marzano Restaurant at 117 Second Avenue in the East Village
There are some restaurants that develop over time and there are some restaurants that become popular immediately. When I had read a restaurant review on San Marzano a few years ago, it seemed that the restaurant opened and quickly became the ‘go-to’ neighborhood dining establishment for NYU students and residents of the East Village. This was due to the quality of the food and the extremely reasonable prices. Now you can rarely get a table any night of the week.
The restaurant has a nice vibe both during the day and at night.
The main selling point of the restaurant is that all of the pastas are homemade and made inhouse on a daily basis. The prices are very reasonable for a restaurant in NYC. The appetizers are priced at $9.00, the Salads are priced at $9.00, the Pasta Dishes with a choice of sauce priced at $14.00, the Panini sandwiches are priced at $12.00 and the Desserts are priced at $9.00 (these prices reflect the current menu in 2023 post-pandemic and not the original menu that was two to three dollars cheaper for most items).
Still, you will not find prices like this for the quality of the food and service in many other parts of the City.
I have been only able to eat here three times because every time I try to dine here it is always packed with NYU students taking up every table in groups of six and ten. When it got warmer (and during the Pandemic), the restaurant opened outdoor dining. On such a busy street, I noticed many people did not mind eating outside on a nice day.
The freshly brewed Iced Tea is really refreshing on a hot day.
The food is excellent. The first time I ate here I followed the article mentions and had the Caesar Salad ($9.00), the Pappardelle with Bolognese Sauce ($14.00) and the Ricottella ($9.00) for dessert. Everything was freshly made and cooked to perfection.
The Caesar Salad was a nice sized portion of greens lightly dressed but topped with a sharp Parmesan cheese and had a sweetness due to the fresh greens and flavorful dressing that is made inhouse. There was a nice crunchiness to the croutons that are also made inhouse.
The Caesar Salad was nicely tossed and had a nice dressing.
The Pappardelle is made inhouse on a daily basis and was cooked to perfection and tossed with a rich Bolognese sauce made of wine-braised veal, pork and beef with peas, tomato sauce and pecorino. The sauce had such intense flavor from the blend of the meats and the complexity of flavors from the spices. The one thing I do credit San Marzano on is that the portion sizes are nicely sized and is the perfect portion for a meal without having the annoyance to bring leftovers home. It is the perfect lunch and dinner size to enjoy at one sitting.
The Ricottella is a fried dough filled with Nutella and Ricotta cheese and then topped with power sugar. A new spin on a Zeppole or a dessert Calzone. Each bite oozed with chocolate and the creamy sweet taste of the cheese blending in. You could cut it into pieces and dip it in the mixture. On a cool night, it is the perfect dessert.
On my second trip to the restaurant, I started with another salad. This time I wanted something simple and had the Mixed Greens Salad ($9.00). It was a combination of baby greens, walnuts, cranberries, grape tomatoes in a Balsamic vinaigrette. For being late in the season, the greens were so fresh and crunchy. There was a sweet tanginess to the dressing that was made inhouse. it lightly dressed the greens and did not overwhelm the flavor of the vegetables.
The delicious lightly dressed mixed green salad with cheese and beets.
I decided that I wanted to try the Pappardelle again. Since I was not that hungry and had wanted to try the Meatball appetizer, I ordered the pasta with the Meatball sauce which was a classic tomato sauce, grana Padano and studded with mini meatballs which are a combination of veal, pork, beef and bread crumbs. Like the Bolognese sauce, you could taste the richness of the combination of the tomatoes and the various meats.
At the end of this meal, I had one of the restaurant’s freshly made Cannoli. This was filled with a creamy fresh ricotta cheese and topped with powered sugar.
After the movies at the Anthology Theater down the road, I came for a late night summer and treated myself to a dinner of a lot of garlic. I had a much needed Coke to wake myself up after a long day of running around the City and ordered the Shrimp Scampi on top of the Pappardelle and a side of Garlic Bread, which I had seen on someone else’s table the last time I had eaten there.
Just relaxing with a Coke and water after a long day.
Dinner was wonderful. The waiter was so funny because when I asked him if he like the Shrimp Scampi or not, he had said it wasn’t one of his personal favorites. I have to say that the guy was missing out because it was out of this world.
The Garlic Bread was a great way to sop of the rest of the sauce.
Between the amount of garlic on the Garlic Bread and in the pasta dish, I could have killed off any vampire.
The one thing I really love about the restaurant is the portion sizes and the prices. The entrees here are so reasonable and they give you just enough that you are content and you do not have any leftovers to take home.
It was the perfect late night supper and it is such a lively atmosphere to dine in. The crowd is energetic and there is a nice vibe to the bar. Still it is the reasonable and delicious food that keeps me coming back for more. There are still many more sauces I want to try in the future.
The service here is very professional and friendly. They are using a new type of restaurant tablet so it makes ordering much easier. The staff could not be nicer or more patient in this busy dining establishment. If you can snag a table by the window, it is the best to watch the street traffic and watch the world go by.
Getting one of the window seats if fun to watch the street traffic while eating
I wish there were more restaurants like San Marzano in Manhattan. A wonderful meal with excellent service for a very reasonable price. They have the perfect combination of success at this restaurant.
The bar is a nice place to eat dinner or just have a drink.
I recently was visiting the neighborhood to go to see a movie at the Anthology down the street and stopped in for dinner. The place was packed so I ate at the bar, which is underrated. It was nice talking to people who were dining there as well.
I was dying for a salad so I ordered the Mixed Green Salad which is tossed with a light dressing and candied walnuts, to start. The I had to try the Meatball Panini, which had the restaurant’s signature pork meatballs in their delicious red sauce and tucked into their freshly baked bread. God dinner was delicious.
This is the perfect comfort food on a cool November meeting. The meatball to sandwich ratio is perfect and the sandwich is not overwhelming like at some pizzerias.
The simplicity of the food is excellent coupled with excellent service and a lively atmosphere. I love this place. It’s great when you can get a table but it is also fun to sit at the bar as well. When I go to the movies at the Anthology Theater down the road, I love coming here for dinner and relaxing at the bar.
The Chicken Parm Panini is a really over stuffed sandwich
I ordered the Chicken Parmesan panini for dinner with an ice tea and it was just enough. The sandwich had two huge freshly fried chicken cutlets with a very rich red sauce. It was so big it could have been two meals.
On a cold night after an evening at the Grey Gallery around the corner, I came in for a late dinner and wanted another sandwich. These are over-sized and make a nice late lunch or early dinner. This time I ordered the Grilled Chicken Caprese sandwich. It was perfect on a cool night.
The sandwich has two nice juicy breasts grilled to perfection with arugula, mozzarella and aioli sauce on top and the roll tasted like it was freshly baked.
San Marzano Restaurant at 117 Second Avenue in the East Village
There are some restaurants that develop over time and there are some restaurants that become popular immediately. When I had read a restaurant review on San Marzano a few years ago, it seemed that the restaurant opened and quickly became the ‘go-to’ neighborhood dining establishment for NYU students and residents of the East Village. This was due to the quality of the food and the extremely reasonable prices. Now you can rarely get a table any night of the week.
The main selling point of the restaurant is that all of the pastas are homemade and made inhouse on a daily basis. The prices are very reasonable for a restaurant in NYC. The…
I finally felt well enough to continue my walk around Manhattan. I had not been into New York City in six weeks and had really missed my walking around the island. I had finished exploring the Hell’s Kitchen/Clinton neighborhood before I pulled my back and decided to keep my adventures closer to home (Exploring Downtown Boonton-Day One Hundred and Two). I just was not up to coming into the City.
The Garment District once home to many designers and manufacturers in the New York Fashion Industry is not what it was when my Grandfather was an officer in the Ladies Garment Union back in the 1950’s and 60’s. It is not what it once was with the showrooms that were located there when I worked for Macy’s in the 1990’s. Cost of real estate, rezoning for commercial and residential during the Bloomberg Administration and cost of doing business in the area has shrunk the manufacturing of clothes that this area once prided itself.
Still in the core of the district many manufactures and shops still cater to the business and you will still see button shops, fabric stores and wholesale merchants next to new coffee shops , boutiques and small hotels that now dot the area.
Technically the area can stretch as far down as West 25th Street and around the Fashion Institute of Technology but the area with its real estate cache for names consider this area now ‘Chelsea’ and even east of it what is left of the ‘Flower District’. In the era of COVID, this area is still pretty quiet with manufacturing still shut and the Fashion Institute not yet open for the Fall semester (it has since opened and the area is full of students). I was amazed by the lack of people still not walking around the area.
I started my walk just outside the Port Authority which is on the very edge of the neighborhood and walked out the door and around the building to Ninth Avenue. Even though it was Labor Day, there were not a lot of people walking around the streets. It looked like everyone was either still away, recovering from the recent storm Hurricane Ida that flattened the area with rain and wind or just getting ready for school to start the next day. It seemed like a quiet day in Manhattan.
Pre-COVID the Port Authority between West 42nd to West 41st Streets from Eighth to Ninth Avenues was going through a face-life renovation and the facility started to move out all the older stores and restaurants for higher end takeout places and an art gallery. It looks now that it has been put on hold until people start to return.
The Port Authority Bus Terminal at 625 Eighth Avenue
Since I returned to Manhattan to resume this project last June, the traffic going through the Port Authority has not changed much even though there are more people on the bus. The afternoon I came into the City it was sunny and 66 degrees. More outdoor dining was in play and more people were outside enjoying the weather.
I started my walk exiting the Port Authority at the corner of Eighth Avenue and West 42nd Street, a corner that still needs a lot of work. Pre-COVID this was a bustling area of theaters, shops and restaurants and one of the biggest McDonald’s in the country. Most of it is closed down now and the homeless have taken back over this area. Surprisingly though, it still remains clean a result of the Partnerships established in the mid-1990’s. This area is swept all day long.
This was nice for me as the sidewalks were empty and the streets were quiet and it was nice to just walk around and not be bothered. Being Labor Day, there seemed to be a huge police presence in Times Square just north of the neighborhood so I did my best to blend in.
Ninth Avenue is in the process of change again as many of the old tenement buildings are being knocked down for new condo complexes and office buildings. Still there are many old named businesses in the neighborhood and the Garment District is home to a lot of the restaurants mentioned in my blog, https://diningonashoestringinnyc.wordpress.com/. There are many ‘Mom & Pop’ restaurants and deli’s that are really reasonable and the food is outstanding.
Walking down West 42nd Street from the entrance of the Port Authority down to Ninth Avenue shares the border with the ‘Hell’s Kitchen/Clinton/Midtown West’ neighborhood and even now new restaurants are beginning to open in places that had been shut during the COVID pandemic. The pandemic is still going on but like any other city, New York City is adapting to it and there are many changes going on all over the neighborhood. It has not stopped the spirit of the neighborhood from progressing and moving forward.
What I have always liked about Ninth Avenue near Midtown is the character of the neighborhood. There are still old tenements and brownstones along the Avenue from 42nd Street down into Chelsea. Here and there old restaurant and provision shops sit along side newer delis and retail shops that show the change in the make up of the neighborhood. Still with the rezoning of the area I am not too sure how long this will last.
Ninth Avenue not only offers an array of many interesting ethnic businesses but many reasonable and interesting delis, take-out places and restaurants that won’t break the budget. Many of the dining establishments featured on my DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com site are found in the Garment District on its borders and streets that will save you money and the food is wonderful.
Starting right at the border of the neighborhood right across the street from the Port Authority is Capizzi Pizza at 547 Ninth Avenue. Their delicious small pizzas are all homemade down to the sausage made for the toppings. When I ate there a few years ago they were noted for their small pepperoni pizza which was excellent. The service was very friendly and very authentic. It can be pricey though but the quality is excellent.
A block down and across the street from the Port Authority is the original Two Brother Pizza at 542 Ninth Avenue. This place has been around for years and has one of the best $1.00 slices of pizza in Manhattan. This is my ‘go to’ place when I need a quick snack and want something substantial. To my knowledge, it is one of the original dollar slice places in the City.
The restaurant is in a rather shady section of the shadow of the Port Authority. During the day it is okay but the later at night you get it does attract some interesting characters especially if you eat outside on one of the cocktail tables. The pizza is really good and is one of the few dollar pizza places where the pizza tastes like something. Most places I find in the City the pizza is just something to fill you up.
Across the street from Two Brothers Pizza and our ‘go to’ place for breakfast during the Christmas holidays was Hell’s Kitchen Deli, a relatively new place to the neighborhood. This is where I ordered Bacon, Egg and Cheese sandwiches. The place is really clean and has a nice selection of snacks and sandwiches.
Hell’s Kitchen Deli at 535 Ninth Avenue has the best breakfast sandwiches
Though most of the housing in this part of the neighborhood is old tenement housing, you can look up from a distance and see some unusual carvings in the buildings. The building at 510-508 Ninth Avenue has some strange faces staring back at you from above. The building was built in 1920 (Apartments.com/StreetEasy.com).
When walking down Ninth Avenue, you will see the signs of the past not just in the architecture but in former restaurants and provision stores that used to line the Avenue. First there is Esposito Meat Market at 500 Ninth Avenue which has been in business since 1932. You can see the selection of meats and different cuts from the window. The one time I walked in you could smell the aroma of the freshly cut meats. The store prides itself on always delivering quality (Esposito Meat Market website).
Years ago I did an article on Manganaro’s Grosseria Italiano at 488 Ninth Avenue when owner Seline Dell’Orto still owned and worked at the store. The famous Italian provision store closed about ten years ago after years of squabbling but the sign is still there. It is now Tavolo Restaurant.
Manganaro’s Grosseria Italiano at 488 Ninth Avenue in 2011
Enjoy the article I wrote on Manganaro’s years ago:
One of the places that had inspired my dining site, “DiningonaShoeStringinNYC” is the 9th Avenue Gourmet Deli (Formerly the AM/PM & Juniors Deli) at 480 Ninth Avenue. This amazing little deli has it all, a nice grocery department, cold drinks and wonderful hot and cold food section that never ceases to amaze me.
The breakfast platters here are heaping with eggs, pancakes and sausage and the sandwich platters fill the take out containers. Everything is freshly cooked and delicious. Their burgers are cooked perfectly and they don’t skimp on the fries. The best part is that they are open 24 hours.
Another great place that I love to stop at is Kashmir 9 at 478 Ninth Avenue. The cuisine of the restaurant is traditional Bangladesh and Pakistani food with all sorts of baked goods and entrees. I have had their Lamb Kebobs, Chicken Patties, Potato Cutlets and the Vegetable Samosas are out of this world.
When you walk in the whole restaurant has the wonderful smell of curry and spices with the hustle and bustle of many languages being spoken. There is even a prayer rug in the back section of the restaurant for those on their breaks which I thought was a nice touch for their busy customers.
The kebobs here are delicious
The lunches here are reasonable and delicious
As I passed all the restaurants, I walked down Ninth Avenue to a small park that I never really noticed before. At least that it was a park. This little park called “The Canoe” Plaza is part of the Hudson Yards/Hell’s Kitchen Alliance and is at the corner of Ninth Avenue and West 37th Street. This was the creation of the design team of Design Wild and was convert the block to a flowery heaven right at the entrance of the Lincoln Tunnel (Hudson Yards Alliance/Design Wild).
Jordan Baker-Caldwell is an American born artist from New York City and is the youngest artist in the history of New York to have a permanent public sculpture. The artist’s work has been noted as evoking questions about gravity, structure, balance and the human body in relation to space (Artist’s bio).
Please watch the video of the artist describing his work in the park
As I turned the corner of the border of the neighborhood at West 34th Street, I saw a familiar restaurant from Christmas time, Golden City Chinese Restaurant at 423 Ninth Avenue. This is where we ordered in our Christmas dinner. I have to admit that their fried rice is really good but the rest of the meal was okay.
Golden City Chinese Restaurant at 423 Ninth Avenue (Closed January 2024)
Walking down West 34th Street brought back memories of my years at Macy’s. It is truly amazing how the City keeps changing. When I worked in the City in the early 1990’s, West 34th Street was not a place you wanted to walk at night or sometimes even during the day. From Sixth Avenue to Eighth Avenue was particularly sketchy. Now it is all new office buildings with most of the old neighborhood from Eighth to Seventh Avenue either completely knocked down or renovated.
Still there are a couple of old standbys still left. One of them before you arrive at Macy’s is the Hotel New Yorker on the corner of Eighth Avenue and West 34th Street at 481 Eighth Avenue. The hotel was designed by architects Sugarman and Berger and designed in the Art Deco style. The hotel was constructed in 1928 and opened in 1930. The hotel now managed by Wyndam Hotels put the hotel through a full renovation in 2006 to bring it back to its glory years now reflected the resurgence of the neighborhood (Hotel New Yorker History website/Wiki).
I continued walking down West 34th Street to Seventh Avenue I arrived at Macy’s at 151 West 34th Street. Things have changed so much in thirty years. The whole area has gotten so much better. It was so run down when I worked there. Also the retail scene was so much different with new retail stores lining this part of West 34th Street that used to be discount retailers.
Where the H & M store at 1293 Broadway is now used to be Herald Center, an upscale mall that never did well and the concept closed two years later when I returned to work in the buying offices. The only thing that survived was the food court on the top floor.
Before 1965, this was home to Saks 34th Street before its move to its current Fifth Avenue location. The store was founded by Andrew Saks and opened its doors in Herald Square in 1902 just five weeks before Macy’s opened their doors. The store was designed by architects Buchman & Fox in the Classical style. The store was bought by the Gimbel family in 1923 and that is when it was moved to its current location at 511 Fifth Avenue. The original store is now covered with new siding to give it its modern look for H & M (NYC Circa). The building stretches from West 34th to West 33rd Street along the Broadway corridor.
The Saks 34th Street Building on the corner of West 34th Street and Broadway at 1293 Broadway
Next door to that was the old Gimbel’s Department Store building that closed in 1986, a year and a half before I started at Macy’s. Gimbel’s had always been considered our rival for years but I think because of the sheer size of Macy’s I have a feeling that we beat them in sales. Gimbel’s had come to New York City by way of Philadelphia by the Gimbel’s family. It was founded by Adam Gimbel in 1887. The store in Herald Square opened in 1910 in the classical style by architect Daniel Burnham (Wiki). The store stretches from West 33rd to West 32nd Streets along Broadway.
Gimbel’s Department Store at Sixth Avenue and 33rd Street
There are still traces of Gimbels Department Store
When the store closed in 1986, it was renovated and was called A & S Plaza when that store moved into the space. When A & S closed in the mid 1990’s when it merged with Macy’s, the store was renovated again and now is called Manhattan Mall. It is mostly office space now (Wiki).
In the middle of this former shopping district and just south of Herald Square is Greeley Square named after Horace Greeley, the editor of the New York Tribune. The square was acquired by New York City in 1846 and turned into the park. The statue that dominates the southern end of the park was designed by sculptor Alexander Doyle in 1890 (NYCParks.org).
Greeley Square was named after Horace Greeley, who published the first issue of The New Yorker magazine and established the New York Tribune. He was also a member of the Liberal Republican Party where he was a Congressman and ran for President of the United States after the Civil War.
Publisher and Politician Horace Greeley famous for his quote “Go West, young man, Go West”
The Horace Greeley statue is located in the park just south of Herald Square in Greeley Square.
The statue at Christmas time
The statue was created by artist Alexander Doyle. Alexander Doyle was an American born artist who studied in Italy with several artists. He is best known for his marbles and bronze sculptures of famous Americans including many famous Confederate figures that have come under fire recently.
Reaching the border with Murray Hill to the east is the former B. Altman Department Store that closed in 1989 and in the other corner is the Empire State Building, once the tallest building in the world.
The B. Altman Building at 361 Fifth Avenue was built by Benjamin Altman for the new location for his ‘carriage trade’ store. The store was designed by architects Trowbridge & Livingston in the “Italian Renaissance Style” in 1906. The palatial store was home to couture clothing, fine furniture and expensive art work.
The former B. Altman Department Store at 361 Fifth Avenue
As the shopping district left Sixth Avenue below 23rd Street, the former “Ladies Shopping Mile” (read my Victorian Christmas Blog on the shopping district) gave way to stores opening between 34th Street to 42nd Street and eventually to the Fifth Avenue locations between 50th and 60th Streets where what is left of the great stores stand today.
The Ladies Shopping Mile on the Sixth Avenue corridor at the turn of the last century
My blog on the Ladies Shopping Mile and a “Victorian Christmas”:
Across the street from the old B. Altman’s building is another impressive building also under scaffolding 10 East 34th Street, The Ditson Building. The impressive building with it intricate details was built in 1906 and designed by architects Townsend, Steinle & Haskell in the Beaux-Arts style for Charles H. Ditson. Mr. Ditson ran the New York division of his family’s company, Charles H. Ditson & Company, a publisher and musical concern (Daytonian).
Crossing Fifth Avenue, I continued to walk down West 34th Street once a major shopping district lined with shops and department stores. The most impressive and well known building in the neighborhood is the former tallest building in the world at 102 floors, the Empire State Building at 2-20 West 34th Street.
The Empire State Building is probably the most famous building in New York City outside of maybe Rockefeller Center and one of the most prominent. The building sits on the side of the former Astor Mansion and the first Waldorf-Astoria Hotel before the current one was built in the 1930’s on Park Avenue.
The Empire State Building was inspired during the “Race to the Sky” movement in New York City during the 1920’s prosperity with builders vying for the “World’s Tallest Building” title. This was going on in cities all over the US at a time of great innovation in building. The building was conceived in 1929 long before the Stock Market Crash of 1929 as 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler Building were being constructed (Wiki).
The building is known just by its appearance and is probably best known for the movie “King Kong” back in the 1930’s and most recently “Sleepless in Seattle” in the 1990’s. The movies don’t do the building justice from its sky decks with views of Manhattan and beautiful Art Deco details on the elevators and in the lobby. The 102 story building is one of the ‘Seven Wonders of the Modern World’ and was the tallest building in the world until the World Trade Center opened in 1970 (Wiki). It is now the second tallest building in New York City.
The famous Empire State Building scene from “King Kong” in 1933
The building is a major tourist site and it was so strange to see no one in line for the now open sky ride to the sky decks where you can see across the whole City. The lines are usually really long down West 34th Street but there were just a few people talking to the guards the days I passed. If you get a chance to walk around the lobby it really is beautiful but that was pre-COVID. You have to have preassigned tickets to get into the building.
As I continued down West 34th Street, I saw the old Ohrbach’s Department Store building at 7 West 34th Street. The store was still open when I started to work at Macy’s in 1988 but it closed about a year later to be followed by B. Altman & Company in 1990. That left Macy’s alone on West 34th Street until a branch of the A & S opened in the Gimbel’s building in the 1990’s (that would close when A & S merged with Macy’s in 1995).
7 West 34th Street-McCreeyers/Ohrbach’s Department Store
What I did not know was the building has an older past by its original owner James McCreeyer & Company, a luxury department store that had started in the 1860’s and had closed this location in 1953 due to changing styles and business. Ohrbach’s bought the store in 1954 and ran it as a moderate department store until it closed in 1988 (Wiki and Defunct Department Stores).
Another impressive building on the this former shopping street is 19 West 34th Street, The Martin Building. The building was built and finished in 1907 for the Réveillon Freres, a leading manufacturer of furs and accessories. The building was designed in the Italian Renaissance style with Beaux Arts features. The company moved out of the building and further uptown in 1918 and leased the building out (Daytonian). The building now serves as offices on top and retail on the bottom.
17-19 West 34th Street-The Martin Building/Revillon Freres Building
Another standout building I saw was 31 West 34th Street the former Oppenheim, Collins & Company Department Store building. The store was built in 1907 for the Oppenheim, Collins & Company wholesalers when they decided to open a retail store in the location. The former department store was designed by architects Buchman & Fox in the Beaux Arts style. The store existed until 1963 when it was merged by the owner of the store with Franklin Simon & Company Department Store and the name disappeared. The store closed in 1977 (Daytonian).
31 West 34th Street-The Oppenheim, Collins & Company/Franklin Simon & Company building
The last building I noticed for its beauty was on the corner of Sixth Avenue and West 34th Street, 47 West 34th Street (1378 Broadway or 2 Herald Square) the Marbridge Building. The Marbridge Building was by architects Townsend, Steinle & Haskell in 1909 in the Classical Beaux Arts style and has been used as an office building since its opening (Wiki/Photo/Street).
It is funny that in all the years I had worked at Macy’s Herald Square, I either never noticed these buildings on all my walks along 34th Street or never gave them a lot of though. When you realize the rich architectural history of the neighborhood and the role it played in the retail history of New York it really amazed me how prominent a shopping area this once was between 1900-1960. This growth came about as the retail district moved further uptown from the Ladies Shopping Mile district on Sixth Avenue below West 21st Street.
I finished my walk of the borders of this neighborhood with a quick break by relaxing in Greeley Square again and using one of the few public bathrooms in the area (the other being Macy’s lower level Men’s Department) and just sat back and admired the Horace Greeley statue. I wondered how many people passed this statue and never gave it any thought. I wondered what he might of thought of the changes here in the last 100 years. The neighborhood is so rich in history of the development of the business sector in New York City.
As I walked up Fifth Avenue, the western border of the neighborhood, I was struck by all the other beautiful buildings that must have housed fine retail stores as the shopping district moved to this area.
At the corner of Fifth Avenue and West 36th Street is 390 Fifth Avenue that was designed by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White for the Gorham Manufacturing Company of fine silver products in 1903. It was designed in the “Italian Renaissance Style” and was used for manufacturing and their showroom. It later became Russeks Department store and has now found other uses.
390 Fifth Avenue-The Gorham Manufacturing Building
Another standout building is 383 Fifth Avenue. These two interesting twin buildings were built in the mid-1800’s as private homes and then converted to office space in the 1890’s.
Further up is the dazzling 373 Fifth Avenue which was built in 1800’s for the home of Charles H. Russell when the area was dominated by great mansions. As one by one the mansions were razed for commercial use, the home was razed in 1906 and architects Hunt & Hunt built the current office building in 1906 for Joseph Fahys & Company and for silversmiths Alvin Manufacturing Company (Daytonian).
Walking further up Fifth Avenue into the 400 block, more unique buildings fascinated me. The first that has always caught my eye is 401 Fifth Avenue, the old Tiffany & Company building. The building was designed for the company by Stamford White of McKim, Mead & White and was completed in 1905. The building was used by the jewelry store until 1940 when it moved to its new location further up Fifth Avenue. The building was inspired by the Palazzo Grimani de San Luca in Venice, Italy (Wiki).
Another standout building further up is 411 Fifth Avenue with its interesting trim and sculpture along the sides and top of the building. This building was built in 1915 again by the architectural firm of Warren & Wetmore with what was considered baroque trim that included urns, flowers and heads with facial reliefs (Daytonian). The building was used for small luxury manufacturing for things like millinery, lace and silversmiths. Today it is used as an office building.
Approaching the New York Public Library again, I passed what were some of the great department stores along the Fifth Avenue retail corridor that once dominated between 34th and 42nd Streets.
The detail of the top of 411 Fifth Avenue.
The former Lord & Taylor headquarters store that opened in 1914 just recently closed with a sale to the now imploded We Works company and was just sold to Amazon for 985 million dollars. This former ‘grand carriage trade’ store replaced the former headquarters store at Broadway and 20th Street by Union Square and opened at this location at 424-434 Fifth Avenue. The 11 story building was designed by architects Starrett & Van Vleck in the ‘Italian Renaissance Revival’. The store closed for business in January of 2019 after over one hundred years in the location.
Lord & Taylor was founded in New York City in 1826 and has moved around the City several times in its long history. I will miss walking around the store and wondering through the store at Christmas time which was always magical in the store’s heyday. I like everyone in the City will miss their Christmas windows.
I’m not sure if Amazon will continue this tradition
Another great retailer was at 452 Fifth Avenue, the former home to Knox Hat Company which was incorporated into the HSBC Tower in 1984. The glass tower was built around the Beaux Arts building for the HSBC and it was considered an architectural marvel when it opened. The Knox Building was built in 1902 and is considered on of the finest examples of ‘Beaux Arts style’ in Manhattan.
452 Fifth Avenue-The Knox Hat Company Building part of the HSBC Building
The Knox Hat Company was considered one of the finest hat companies for men when it was founded in 1838. It once had 62 retail stores and was sold in all the finest stores. It did not survive the Great Depression and was merged with three other companies in 1932 to form Hat Corporation of American (Hat Co) (Bernard Hats history).
The last interesting building I saw before returning to the library to relax by the fountains again was 454 Fifth Avenue at 40th Street, the old Arnold Constable & Company department store.
Fifth Avenue at 40th Street-Arnold Constable & Company Department store
The building opened in 1915 and closed when the company went out of business in 1975. It is now part of the New York Public Library. Arnold Constable & Company was founded in 1825 and was considered one of the oldest stores in New York City. The building was created as the shopping district moved further uptown. The company closed for business in the 1990’s.
I reached Bryant Park by the afternoon and it was just beautiful that afternoon. The park has gotten more crowded with each month that the City has opened. The tables and chairs are ‘socially distanced’ and park patrons did their best to stay away from each other. It also has the nicest and cleanest public bathrooms in Manhattan so it is worth the wait in line.
Years ago when I worked in Manhattan in the early 90’s, Bryant Park was only used for drug dealing and criminal activity and was best avoided. What twenty years and a major renovation can do to a park. Today you can walk along the flowering paths and think you are in Paris. In the past there have been concerts and movies in the park but because of COVID-19, you can just sit in the park on a chair or bench and enjoy the sunshine and admire the flowers.
Just walking along the paths of Bryant Park can make you forget your troubles especially in the summer.
I continued my walk of the Garment District passing the New York Public Library admiring the stone carvings and statuary that is part of the entrance of the famous library. The library had just had a recent refreshing and looked magnificent with the fountains flowing and patrons filling the tables outside the building.
The New York Public Library guards the borders of Murray Hill from Fifth Avenue during COVID
This famous iconic building was designed by the firm of Carrere and Hastings in the Beaux-Arts style and opened its doors May 23, 1911. The founding for this important library came from patronage of the wealth members of society who believed in the value education and opened it to the people.
The famous lion statues that grace the entrance of the library were designed by American sculptor Edward Clark Potter and they were carved by the Piccirilli Brothers, American stone carvers whose business was based in the Bronx.
The Lion Statues
Edward Clark Potter is an American born artist who studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and at the Academie Julian in Paris where he studied ‘animalier’, animal sculpture.
The Piccirilli Brothers were a family of stone carvers and artists in their own right who were from Massa, Italy and owned a business in the Bronx. There were responsible for many famous statues all over the City including the Maine Memorial in Columbus Circle and the Firemen’s Memorial in Riverside Park.
Artist Attilio Piccirillo , one of the most famous from the family
Another feature of the famous building and I had never noticed before was the elegant fountains that flank the entrance to the library. I did not realize that these fountains had just been restored in 2015 after thirty years of not functioning. They were restored with a grant from the Robert W. Wilson Charitable Trust (NYPL Site).
The fountain “Beauty”
The fountain “Truth”
These beautiful fountains were designed by artist Frederick MacMonnies, an American born artist who studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris.
Tucked to the side of the library that I never noticed before was the plaque dedicated to Wendall Wilke, an American lawyer and the 1940 Republican Presidential Candidate.
The Wendall Wilke plaque on the side of New York Public Library.
I relaxed under the trees and took a break from the walking. It is a funny thing that I have noticed at the park and it seems like no one is ever working. Everyone is either eating or talking. It has been so different since COVID started. You never see dressed businesspeople in the park taking a break. It looks more like it is full of tourists visiting.
Enjoy the opening scene of “Ghostbusters” from 1984 shot at the NY Public Library:
Enjoy this scene from “Ghostbusters” from 1984 shot at the NY Public Library
The opening of the film “Ghostbusters” was shot inside the New York Public Library
Still when the park is in full bloom there is nothing like it. It is surrounded by classic architecture and beautiful buildings. They even were bringing back the “Bryant Park Film Festival” by the end of the summer. One Monday night I took a break from walking and watched the film “Moonstruck” which I had seen outside once at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. Even tough I had seen it hundreds of times since it came out I never tire of watching the film.
The library at the end of the evening.
The library at Christmas time
There have been many changes around Bryant Park in the last twenty years. Most of the older buildings of Times Square have been long knocked down and the area rebuilt which needed it. Now the impressive Bank of America building at 1111 Sixth Avenue (or also known as One Bryant Park) graces the corner of West 42nd Street and Sixth Avenue (trust me, no one in New York City calls Sixth Avenue “The Avenue of the Americas”).
This innovative building was designed by architect Rick Cook from the firm of Cookfox Adamson Associates. The building was designed with a clear ‘Curtin wall’ and several diagonal planes for wind resistance. The building was also awarded a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for sustainable ‘green’ architecture (Wiki/Durst website).
The further you walk down West 42nd Street, the more you see how the block has changed in the last thirty years. All the older theaters and office buildings were knocked down and cleared out back in the 1980’s when Times Square went through urban renewal. The more historical theaters and old hotels have since been refitted and renovated.
Across the street in Three Bryant Park’s plaza is an interesting statue entitled “The Guardians: Hero” by artist Antonio Pio Saracino. This unique sculpture in made in layers and created from marble set in precision stone. The statue is done in repeated planes of marble . The sculpture is a modern representation on Michelangelo’s “David” Stoneworld/APS Designs).
Artist Antonio Pio Saracino is an Italian born artist currently working in New York City. He is a graduate of Sapienza University of Rome and works as an architect and designer. He has had shows all over the world (Wiki).
At the corner of West 42nd Street and Broadway is the Knickerbocker Hotel at 6 Times Square. This hotel has had many incarnations over the years including an apartment house. As the neighborhood has improved, the historical buildings in the area have been renovated back to their former selves.
The Knickerbocker Hotel was built by John Jacob Astor IV and it opened in 1906. The hotel was designed by the firm of Marvin & Davis in the Beaux-Arts style. The outside of the hotel was built in red brick with terra cotta details. The hotel was fully renovated in 2015 (Wiki).
One building that stands tall in Times Square is One Times Square known as 1475 Broadway. Once the home headquarters for the New York Times was opened in 1904. The building was designed by architect Cyrus L.W. Eidlitz. The original façade was of stone and terra cotta but this has been mostly stripped and is now home for mostly advertising. The ball still drops from the top of the building every New Year (Wiki).
What is left of the old ’42nd Street’ Theater District has been renovated and refitted of its historic theaters. The rest of the block was knocked down and new office buildings were built starting in the late 1980’s and throughout the 1990’s. This is still a major gateway to the City especially from the Lincoln Tunnel and the Port Authority (NYCEDC/42nd Street Redevelopment Project).
The original 42nd Street Redevelopment project (NYCEDC)
In the early 1980’s to the early 90’s until Mayor Rudy Giuliani took office, this area was being touted for redevelopment. It had started before the 1987 Stock Market Crash and then stalled for almost eight years. In the early 1990’s, the whole block between Seventh and Eighth Avenues along West 42nd Street were torn down, the theaters started to get renovated and new office buildings were built. If someone left New York City in 1990 and came back today, they would not recognize the neighborhood to the changes made.
Some of the changes has been the renovation and restoration of three beautiful theaters, the New Victory Theater at 209 West 42nd Street, the New Amsterdam Theater at 214 West 42nd Street and the former Empire Theater now the AMC Empire Theater at 234 West 42nd Street. Each of these architectural wonders used to be major theater houses before they became porn theaters and are now back to their original glory.
The New Victory Theater was one of the first theaters to reopen under the new plan.
The New Victory Theater was built by Oscar Hammerstein I in 1900 and was designed by architect Albert Westover. It opened as the Theatre Republic in 1900 and showed live stage shows. It did not become a movie theater until 1942 and by 1972 it became a porn theater. it resumed legitimate theater by the 1990’s when it was refurbished in 1995 and was the first theaters renovated in the 42nd Development plan (Wiki).
The New Amsterdam Theater is one of the oldest theaters in the area having been built between 1903 and 1904. The theater was built by Klaw and Erlanger for live theater and was designed by architects Herts &Tallant with a Beaux Arts exterior design and an Art Deco interior. The embellishments and details on the outside are quite elaborate (Wiki).
The theater was home to the Ziegfeld Follies from from 1913 to 1927 and hosted the elaborate shows of their day. It then was converted to a movie theater in 1937 until 1983 when it was leased to the Walt Disney company and renovated between 1995 and 1997. It is now operated by Disney Theatrical Productions for their live shows (Wiki/Walt Disney Company)
The former Empire Theater now the AMC Empire 25 was built in 1912 for producer Al H. Woods and was designed by architect Thomas W. Lamb in the Beaux Arts style. The theater was for live stage performances until 1943 when it was converted into a movie palace. It closed for good in the 1980’s as the area declined (Cinema Treasurers).
In 1998, the theater was moved from its location at 236 West 42nd Street and moved down the street to its present location at 234 West 42nd Street. The exterior was largely kept intact and the present theater interior was built inside of it enhancing the beauty of the present building (Cinema Treasurers/Wiki).
These theaters showed the testament of time and this type of architecture now is appreciated and being refitted to modern uses like the buildings I had seen in NoMAD (North of Madison Square Park) and in the Flatiron District.
A lot of the businesses on West 42nd Street heading back to the Port Authority have started opening up again. Sidewalk cafes were out with the warmer weather and customers were milling around. I saw this happening on my walks into the Hell’s Kitchen/Clinton section just north of the border of the Garment District.
One of my favorite Chinese restaurants from the 1990’s, Ollies at 411 West 42nd Street had not just opened their dining room but their outside cafe dining. Ollies had once been a popular restaurant in the Theater district at the corner of West 46th Street off Broadway and one of my favorite places to eat after work. It is still popular but the chef has since changed.
One building that stood out amongst the smaller tenement buildings of West 42nd Street was the Holy Cross Church at 329 West 42nd Street, which was decorated by plantings of many flowers that gave it a festive appearance.
The building has a interesting history. The parish was established in 1852 and the original building was built in 1852 but it was outgrown so a new building was built in 1854. This building was hit by lightning in 1867 and the current building was built in the same spot in 1870. It was built by architect Henry Englebert and is the oldest building on 42nd Street (Wiki and Holy Cross History).
Once I got back to Port Authority it was back for a bathroom break as there are not many public toilets in the neighborhood. Then I made the walk around the second time around the perimeter of the Garment District admiring the buildings and businesses walking the other side of the street. I could see by the traffic that the east side of Eighth Avenue was very quiet near the now closed theaters.
This area was hit hard by COVID pandemic and it is rumored that Broadway theaters should open between September and December (at the time of this writing of this blog, some of the theaters started to open up and some closed immediately). Slowly over the past month and a half the night foot traffic has increased with the opening of live theater and the loosening restrictions at the movie theaters. This has lead to the restaurants in the area reopening as well so there are lights on now on these blocks at night. They have also gotten cleaned up more.
The changes of the Upper Part of the Garment District along with Hell’s Kitchen have changed tremendously in the last thirty years with completion of the 42nd Street Redevelopment projects, more new hotels opening and the rezoning of the area under the Bloomberg Administration. We will start to see even more changes in this area as development post COVID starts to open. The funny part is that even when I entered the City again last June, it never stopped.
Bryant Park at night in the summer.
This part of Manhattan keeps moving forward with new buildings, new restaurants and new ideas.
Please check out my other blogs on the Garment District:
Day Two Hundred and Twelve: Walking the Avenues of the Garment District:
I had to split the neighborhood into two parts separated by 10th Avenue as there was so much to see and the complexity of the neighborhood changes on each side.
Walks in the surrounding neighborhoods of Murray Hill and Kipps Bay:
You really do learn something new every day!
Check out my other blogs on Murray Hill as well:
Walking the Avenues of Murray Hill on August 14th, 2020:
I came across Lucky’s Famous Burgers while walking the Hell’s Kitchen/Clinton neighborhood for my blog, “MywalkinManhattan.com” and thought it looked like a nice little neighborhood restaurant. It is an excellent combination of food, atmosphere and good customer service. For a burger place, I thought the food was excellent and the portion sizes were really fair.
They have a nice selection of combination meals on the menu to choose from and after walking all day long I was starved. I settled for the Lucky’s Original Special with French Fries and a Boylan’s Black Cherry Soda from the fountain. That was a real treat because I love their sodas and you don’t see them on the fountain too much…
There are some stores in New York City that just stand out for their uniqueness because of the product they sell or their history with the City or both. Little Pie Company is one of those stores.
I had heard of the store since its opening years ago and had never visited it. When I was walking the Hell’s Kitchen/Clinton neighborhood for my blog, “MywalkinManhattan.com”, I finally came across this friendly little pie shop just off the Theater District. Since I remembered that the founder was a actor who was trying to earn money while he was in between jobs I thought it was fitting for its location.
Since COVID, the pies are now individually wrapped for purchase and did not come just out…
The Titanic Memorial Lighthouse sits just in front of the entrance to the South Street Seaport.
I have been to the South Street Seaport dozens of times over the years and can’t believe that I never noticed this memorial dedicated to those lost in the Titanic disaster. I was visiting the Seaport recently after finishing another walk down the length of Broadway for my blog, “MywalkinManhattan.com” and was walking past the Seaport on my way to Chinatown. Something about it this time caught my attention and I stopped to look at the dedication of this small lighthouse.
It was really touching to see that the people from the 1912 disaster were not forgotten in New York City, its ultimate destination. This was the work of Molly Brown, the ‘Unsinkable Molly Brown’ from the movie. She wanted to be sure that the people who survived were never forgotten. The small lighthouse structure sits at the entrance to the main part of the seaport on an island just off the cobblestone walkway into the complex.
The tower that it was originally placed a top of the Seamen’s Church Institute Building and it was put up for sale and demolished in 1965 and the small lighthouse memorial was donated to the South Street Seaport Museum. It was placed in its current location in 1976 (Friends of the Lighthouse).
The little lighthouse is a touching reminder of Manhattan’s connection to the event over 100 years ago. Try not to miss it when you are visiting the Seaport.
The history of the Titanic Memorial Lighthouse:
(This is from the Friends of the Titanic Memorial Lighthouse website)
On April 15th, 1913, one year after the sinking of the Titanic, the Titanic Memorial Lighthouse and Time Ball, mounted atop the Seamen’s Church Institute, were dedicated to honor the passengers, officers and crew who perished in the tragedy. The dedicatory service opened with a hymn and prayer and then Rt. Rev. David h Greer, Bishop of New York, read the following lines of dedication:
“To the glory of Almighty God and in loving memory of those passengers, officers and crew who lost their lives in the foundering of the steamship, Titanic, on April 15, 1912, I, David Hummell Greer, Bishop of New York and president of the Seamen’s Church Institute of New York, do solemnly dedicate the Titanic Memorial Lighthouse Tower. As its light by night shall guide pilgrims and seafaring men from every clime into this port, so may they follow Him who is the Light of Life across the waves of this troublesome world to everlasting life and looking at noon toward this place to note the time of day, may they remember that our days pass as the swift ships and in view of the shortness and uncertainty of human life, strive to fulfill their duty well as the beat preparation for Eternity. Amen.”
The Titanic Memorial Lighthouse exhibited a fixed green light that could be seen throughout New York harbor and down as far as Sandy Hook. Five minutes before noon each day, a time ball would be hoisted to the top of a steel rod mounted atop the lighthouse and dropped at the stroke of twelve as indicated over the wires from Washington DC. According to The Lookout, the magazine of the Seamen’s Church Institute, the Titanic Memorial Lighthouse would be a much needed daily reminder for ‘in a busy, carless city the average person so soon forgets’.
The Seamen’s Church Institute was established in 1834 and had announced plans for its new twelve story headquarters at South Street and Coenties Slip in Lower Manhattan several years before the loss of the Titanic. The Flemish style building was meant to reflect new York’s Dutch origins and was to be crowned by a tower whose beacon would welcome incoming seamen. The cornerstone for the building was laid one day after the sinking of the Titanic and a week later the institute announced the lighthouse atop their building would be a memorial to the victims of the tragedy.
I have been to the South Street Seaport dozens of times over the years and can’t believe that I never noticed this memorial dedicated to those lost in the Titanic disaster. I was visiting the Seaport recently after finishing another walk down the length of Broadway for my blog, “MywalkinManhattan.com” and was walking past the Seaport on my way to Chinatown. Something about it this time caught my attention and I stopped to look at the dedication of this small lighthouse.
It was really touching to see that the people from the 1912 disaster were not forgotten in New York City, its ultimate destination. This was the work of Molly Brown, the ‘Unsinkable Molly Brown’ from the movie. She wanted to be…
I started walking the most eastern part of Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen on the hottest day of the year with the humidity bearing down on me. I only got through between West 43rd to West 48th Streets on the first day. The weather was unbearable for walking. I was able to to relax at Hell’s Kitchen Park on the corner of West 48th Street and 10th Avenue under the shade trees to catch my breathe. It was a difficult walk that afternoon.
What I found was that as you get closer to 12th Avenue, it is mostly parking lots and warehouses with a few residences and restaurants scattered about below West 50th Street. There is not much in the way of creative architecture or interesting shops. The one thing I did notice was the amount of tagging on all the buildings. I have not seen this much graffiti since the early 1980’s around the City but am glad that it has not hit the subway cars yet. It seems to be not just on the empty buildings but the ones with lots of full wall space.
On the weekends, this area of the City is really empty and quiet as tourist spots like the Intrepid and the Circle Line start to reopen. Riverside Park is getting busier as residents are getting out now more with COVID lifts and mask requirements softening. It makes it a lot easier to be outside in this heat. The humidity over the last few days was a killer and that is why I only lasted a few blocks on my first day back in the neighborhood.
I started my walk on West 43rd Street crossing over from West 42nd by the Hudson River. The lower part of the edge of Hell’s Kitchen has changed dramatically since the 1990’s when I used to walk around the neighborhood. There has been a lot of new construction with many new automotive dealers opening showrooms in the neighborhood and then the extension of Riverside Park.
Even though it is mostly larger buildings, here and there on each block are historical spots, small businesses and pocket parks and gardens that should not be missed. Take your time to walk the streets as you will not see too many people until you reach 10th Avenue.
Tucked in between all the commercial buildings on West 43rd Street is the FDNY Rescue One Building, who I see all over the City. It is one of the five specialized Rescue companies with the FDNY that require specialized equipment and training. The Company was organized in 1915 . In 2005, the section of West 43rd Street was named Terence S. Hatton Way (Wiki).
Terence S. Hatton was the Captain of the FDNY Rescue Company One and one of the most decorated and dedicated fire fighters in the FDNY. He died when the North Tower collapsed on September 11th, 2001 (911 Memorial).
As I walked back down West 43rd Street rather quickly on my way around the corner to West 44th Street. Similar to West 43rd Street, the street was mostly larger commercial buildings with the exception of a new residential building at 604 West 44th Street. This unique building stood out amongst the cookie cutter buildings on the rest of the block.
The building has a contemporary look to it that takes up most of the corner at 11th Avenue with its unusual windows and dark appearance.
West 45th Street was filled with parking lots and warehouse buildings and there was not much to look at except some interesting ‘tagging’ on the building that seemed to line the buildings in the lower part of the neighborhood from 11th to 12th Avenues.
When I reached West 46th Street, I passed the Landmark Tavern again at 626 11th Avenue that was empty outside due to the heat. It was opened by Patrick Henry Carly in 1868 and has been a staple since. It is one of the oldest continuing restaurants in New York City (Landmark Tavern History). What is so fascinating about the bar is that at one time it stood on the water’s edge of the Hudson River. It shows how Manhattan has reclaimed land around the island. The restaurant has an interesting bar menu.
Rounding the corner again at West 47th Street, one building did stand out amongst the rest of the commercial buildings on these two blocks and that was the McGlynn Hayes & Company building at 605 West 47th Street.
The McGlynn Hays & Company building at 605 West 47th Street
The company was established in 1900 and specializes in all aspects of the Elevator industry (mostly hydraulic elevators) (McGlynn Hayes & Company website).
McGlynn Hayes & Company Building at 605 West 47th Street
The company was founded in 1900 by partners Thomas P. McGlynn and Henderson B. Hayes. The business had previously had been located at 62 Grand Street in lower Manhattan thus the 62 on their sign outside (14to42.net).
Reaching West 48th Street, was drenched in sweat by the time I finished walking the two blocks and there was not much to see with the exception of more warehouses and parking lots. I made it to Hell’s Kitchen Park on the corner of West 48th Street and 10th Avenue in time to collapse under the shade trees of the park and just relaxed. I had to catch my breath and have some bottled water before I took the subway downtown to meet my brother, who was visiting town for dinner in Chinatown. Trust me, the cool subway car relaxed me on the way downtown.
Hell’s Kitchen Playground has been my resting place on this walk at West 48th Street and 10th Avenue
Hell’s Kitchen Park and Playground
Hell’s Kitchen Park in the midafternoon
That evening I joined my brother for dinner and a tour of Chinatown, which seems to slowly be going the way of Little Italy. Disappearing at the edges and smothered in the middle with new residents and businesses. I have never seen so many art galleries and shops opening up. I have began to call it ‘NoLoChi’ (No Longer Chinatown).
One of the restaurants that never closed during the pandemic and now has nice outdoor seating (for those of you who still don’t want to eat indoors in nice weather-I don’t blame you), Dim Sum Go Go at 5 East Broadway is wonderful. I love their assortment of Dim Sum and everything is always so fresh.
It was still so hot out so we choose to eat inside which was a much better choice that evening. I highly recommend the Pork Soup Dumplings and the pan-fried Pot Stickers. Everything on the menu is excellent and the service could not have been nicer that evening. It is getting tougher to find restaurants in Chinatown that stay open after 8:00pm. Slowly it is changing but Mott Street is going dark by 9:30pm and it never did that in the past.
The Soup Dumplings here are fantastic
I started my walk of Hell’s Kitchen again a few days later and it was just as hot but the humidity was not so bad. The one advantage I had as I continued walking the streets of the upper part of the neighborhood was the sun was at a particular point that afternoon and I was walking in the shade of the buildings most of the time.
I started my walk on the upper part of West 48th Street, revisiting the warehouses and parking lots I had already seen and then turned the corner and walked down West 49th Street where you will see more ‘street art’ closer to the rail tracks. What stood out was on the side of the building of Red Cross Building at 520 West 49th Street was the two detailed murals that were painted on the parking lot side of the building. I liked the universal message of the paintings.
You really have to peer over the fence to see these murals on the wall of 520 West 48th Street (no longer there)
At the end of the block, I had to stop for something to eat and came across Sal’s Pizzeria at 696 10th Avenue (Closed June 2024) and had a slice of pizza. I have to say that it was excellent pizza and for $3.00 a slice the price was more than fair for this oversized slice. The sauce has an amazing flavor and is so well spiced and since the pie tasted like it just came out of the oven, the cheese was super gooey. I just took the plate outside and ate it as I walked to the envy of the people walking around me. I think they could tell I was enjoying my lunch.
Sal’s Pizzeria at 696 10th Avenue (Closed June 2024)
I crossed over into the West 50’s after lunch and each block offered many surprises when you really looked. This is the best part of walking each side of the block as you might miss something on the other side which I had done in many blocks (That why I revisit so many neighborhoods and am constantly revising these blogs).
Graffiti art shows up at different times in different places in the neighborhood and this was on the wall at West 50th Street on my trip in 2026.
Street art along West 50th Street
On the corner of West 50th Street and Twelve Avenue, there are interesting paintings all along the upper walls of 680 12th Avenue. They seem to have an unusual theme to them. This is also the case at West Park High School at 525 West 50th Street with a series of beautiful mosaics lining the entrances to the high school.
The high school artwork
The colorful mosaics at 525 West 50th Street make a bold statement (under renovation in 2024)
Rounding the corner at West 51st Street, I saw the beauty again of the St. Mary’s Building at 87 West 11th Avenue with the Juan Alonso Community gardens flanking the entrance to the building. You can see the traces of the old neighborhood mixing with the new. The Juan Alonso Community Gardens on the corner of Eleventh Avenue and West 51st Street.
The St. Mary’s Building at 728 11th Avenue
It had the most interesting roof with the St. Mary’s 1887 sign at the top
Around the corner from 728 11th Avenue is the Juan Alphonso Community Garden, a series of community gardens around this area of the City.
Juan Alonso Community Gardens on the corner of West 51st Street and Eleventh Avenue
The Community Garden was named after a local resident and community activist , Juan Alonso, who tired of seeing an empty lot and drug dealers in the area. The vacant lot is now a network of small gardens throughout the neighborhood run by the Clinton Housing Development Company (CHDC).
The community garden in the Summer of 2024
Another hold out of the neighborhood is the Landmark Tavern at 626 Eleventh Avenue. It was opened by Patrick Henry Carly in 1868 and has been a staple since. It is one of the oldest continuing restaurants in New York City (Landmark Tavern History). What is so fascinating about the bar is that at one time it stood on the water’s edge of the Hudson River. It shows how Manhattan has reclaimed land around the island. The restaurant has an interesting bar menu.
As I made my way down West 52nd Street, I passed the Joe Horvath Way Plaza, which stretches from 10th to 11th Avenues and was dedicated to Joseph Horvath, who located the Police Athletic League William J. Duncan Center on the block from its original location. The Duncan Center was named after a police officer who was shot in 1930 (Wiki).
The plaque outside the Police Athletic League Building
The William J. Duncan Center at 552 West 52nd Street is the home of the Police Athletic League and is a very active building when programs are in session.
When walking back down West 52nd Street, I noticed the plantings and beautiful flowers of the Oasis Community Garden at 505 West 52nd Street. The garden was locked to the public at the time but you could still admire the beauty and the work that was being done by the volunteers for over 30 years.
Even during the pandemic, these dedicated volunteers have done a magnificent job maintaining the garden(Garden Blog site).
The Oasis Community Garden is at 505 West 52nd Street
The outside of the community garden during the Summer of 2024
The Garden in bloom in the summer of 2024
When I reached West 53rd Street, the heat and the walking was beginning to get to me so I stopped at Dewitt Clinton Park which stretches between 11th and 12th Avenues which stretches from West 52nd to West 54th Streets and is the biggest patch of green on this part of the neighborhood.
Dewitt Clinton Park at the Eleventh Avenue and West 52nd Street entrance
The park is a haven for joggers and sports enthusiasts and the Erie Canal Playground is really big with the kids. On my second trip to the park and subsequent trips after, I discovered what a popular place the park was with local families and as the summer wore on with the local summer camps. There was so much activity in the park that afternoon.
As I walked around the park, I saw from when I was walking around Twelfth Avenue that the back part of the park is being reconstructed and renovated with what looks like new lighting , sidewalks and stairs to be followed by new landscaping. One great attribute is that there are open clean bathrooms open later in the evening and working water fountains to refill your water bottle with cool New York City water.
The front beds of Dewitt Clinton Park
The front part of the park is very welcoming with flower beds, nice signage, comfortable benches to relax under the trees and nice paths. When you enter the park, you are greeted by the statue of a Doughboy from WWI.
The Doughboy State greets you at Dewitt Clinton Park (Clinton War Memorial)
The statue was designed by artist Burt W. Johnson. Mr. Johnson is an American born artist who studied under noted sculptors James Earle Fraser and Augustus Saint Gaudens. The artist died shortly after the statue had been modeled (NYCParks.org). He studied at Pomona College and the Art Students League of New York (Wiki).
The park was name after politician and philanthropist Dewitt Clinton from the prominent Dewitt and Clinton families. Mr. Clinton was the former Mayor of New York, Governor and Senator of New York State. He ran for President in 1812 losing to James Madison and was influential in the building the Erie Canal (Wiki).
The Dewitt Clinton Playground in the park
What I really like about this park is the not just the family feel but it is one of the few open green spaces in the neighborhood so you see a Hodge podge of people from business people reading and eating their lunches to neighbors enjoying each others company. It is such a nice place to relax and enjoy time under a shade tree.
The rock formations in the back of the park
One business that did stand out to me was the Clinton Park Stables at 618 West 52nd Street with horse drawn carriages being maintained and leaving the building at different times of the afternoon.
The building was built in the 1880’s to house the horses for the Sanitation and Streets Department and then was fully renovated in 2003 to house the horses on the second and third floors and do all the repairs on the carriages on the main floor (Clinton Park Stables-CarriageOn).
After relaxing in the park for a half hour under a shade tree by the statue, I continued the walk around the park and down West 55th Street which was mostly non descript buildings and then down West 56th Street which houses the a branch of the New York Sanitation Department. You really have to watch here as trucks and cars are coming out at all times and there is not much a space to walk on the sidewalks.
When I reached West 57th Street, there was much more newer residential building in this part of the neighborhood. I stopped again to admire the Via 57th on the corner of West 57th and Twelfth Avenue. This glimmering pyramid of glass stands out amongst the box structures in the neighborhood with it triangular shape and reflections of the sun and the river. It brings an elegance to the newly planted park and changes the makeup of the buildings by the river giving it futuristic look to the Hudson River.
Via 57th along the new Hudson River Park at 625 West 57th Street (Via 57)
This residential building is in the shape of a pyramid or “tetrahedron” looking ‘almost like a sailing vessel going across the river’. The tiered gardens and slopped space integrates with the surrounding park and river. The building was designed by Danish architectural firm Bjarke Ingels Group and by its founding architect Bjarke Ingels (Wiki).
Next to the Via is the Helena 57 West at 601 West 57th Street. On the side of this interesting building is an interesting piece of outdoor at entitled “Flows Two Ways” by artist Stephen Glassman from the Stephen Glassman Studio. This fascinating piece of art was installed in 2016 and reflects the location of the building by the Hudson River.
The “Flows Both Ways” plaque
The piece represents the fact that the Hudson River is both a river and tidal estuary and flows in both directions at different times of the day. It refers to forces that are separate yet connected, a duality that generate abundant life force and a conversation between people, buildings, river earth and sky (Stephen Glassman Studio).
Mr. Glassman is an American born California based artist who holds a BFA from SUNY Purchase. His works are influenced by the California landscape. He has won numerous national awards for his work.
After walking all around the Via 57, admiring the sculpture and beauty of the building itself, I finished my walk of West 57th Street with a slice of pizza at Casabianca Family Italian Ristorante and Pizzeria at 503 West 57th Street. The pizza here is amazing and reasonable at $3.00 for a giant slice.
Casabianca Family Italian Ristorante and Pizzeria at 503 West 57th Street
I had an embarrassing situation at the restaurant that one of the cooks helped me out with when I ordered. I did not have enough cash on me and had only two dollars for the three dollar slice. I did not want to be one of ‘those people’ and explained the situation to the cook that I was a dollar short.
I could not believe it when he said to me “Don’t worry about it. You can have it for $2.00. After you try it, I know you will be back.” That simple act of kindness gave me faith that everyone and everything in New York City is NOT going to pot as many naysayers are announcing on the news. There are still lots of New Yorkers who have faith in people.
The Cheese pizza was great the first time and average the second time
He was right though. The pizza sauce was rich with flavor (see my review on TripAdvisor) and the each bite had a gooey consistency. Plus the size of the slice was much larger than many slices I have eaten on this voyage around Manhattan. They also have some nice specials at $7.00 that I want to try in the future.
The second time I went for lunch in 2024, the pizza was just average. I could not understand because the pizza was so amazing the first time.
After I left the restaurant content with a really nice feeling about the afternoon, I finished my walk around the block admiring the river ahead and the nice breezes coming off it. That felt good after a day like this. The humidity in the City has been off and on since walking in Hell’s Kitchen.
I reached West 58th Street by the late afternoon revisiting buildings that I had admired on past walks in the neighborhood. The first was the IRT Powerhouse Building at 840 12th Avenue and the John Jay College Haaren Hall Building at 899 10th Avenue on the corner of 10th and West 58th Street.
Turning the corner on West 58th Street at Tenth Avenue, you will face the beauty of the John Jay College of Criminology Haaren Building at 899 Tenth Avenue. The building is home to many classrooms and the library for the college. The building was designed by Charles B.J. Snyder and was completed in 1903 (Wiki and John Jay College). The building was originally the Dewitt Clinton High School.
John Jay College Haaren Building at 899 Tenth Avenue
The entrance to John Jay College with its 1903 fixture
The beautiful details to the building
Across the street from the park is the former IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit) Powerhouse at 840 12th Avenue. This ornate building was built in 1904 and takes up the entire area from West 59th to West 58th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues. Designed by architect Stamford White, the building is used by Con Ed of New York to supply the New York Steam system. It is designed in the ‘Renaissance Revival’ and really walk around the building you can see the beautiful details of the building especially around the building . It was recently declared a Landmark Building in New York (Wiki).
The details of the building of the IRT Powerhouse Building
The grand embellishments of the IRT Powerhouse Building
While revisiting the neighborhood, I came across another sculpture that captured my attention “Swinging Jenny” by artist Jay Lagemann at the back side of 610 West 57th Street at Via 57.
“Swinging Jenny” by artist Jay Lagemann
The ‘Swinging Jenny’ plaque
Mr. Lagemann is an American born artist who currently lives on Martha’s Vineyard. He holds degrees in Mathematics from Princeton and a PhD from MIT. His works are influenced from his travels abroad(Artist bio).
I finished my walk by relaxing at the park at One Waterline Square, which was behind fencing the last time I visited the neighborhood over a year ago. The finished complex was simmering in the sunlight and in the middle of the complex is the energetic Waterline Square Park loaded with families and kids.
The tiers of the park were very interesting as stairways lead to different levels of the park with fountains and trees and water features that shot up every few minutes with loads of kids and their parents screaming at each plug of water. This is when it is fun to be a kid.
One Waterline Square
The park was designed by the New York architect group, Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects. This creative women-owned firm who uses a cumulative and holistic image for each project using designs that are insightful and artful as well as performative (MNLA Mission Statement)
Waterline Square Park is one of the most unusual parks that I have seen in the City since walking Battery Park City. The park has almost a Dr. Seuss effect to it with its interesting plantings, bridges and water features in all directions. It also has plenty of seating to relax and enjoy the cool breezes. All this packed in between three elegant buildings. It was fun just watching everyone have a good time.
The pathways at One Waterline Square
It was nice to sit under a tree and relax to cool off. I could believe how this whole area of the City had transformed itself from just a year ago but that is the magic of New York City. From behind the fencing came this magical city of glass and green space appears and shows that Manhattan is in a ever state of change.
I finished my walk of Hell’s Kitchen at 4:00pm that afternoon and just watched the people in the park having a good time. Walking in Hell’s Kitchen/Clinton/Midtown West (whatever you want to call it) and it shows how a City can keep reinventing itself and change for the betterment of the people it serves.
Even with everything going on with the pandemic facing new challenges, as I have walked the streets of this neighborhood I faced a neighborhood like many I have visited since the City reopened summer that has not given up but faced the challenges and put their dedication in making their neighborhood a better place. It has come a LONG way since I worked in Manhattan in the late 1980’s.
I dedicate this blog to all the neighborhood organizations, non-profits and merchants for the work you have done to make this neighborhood what it is today. This is NOT the Hell’s Kitchen of 1983!
Please Read my other blogs on Hell’s Kitchen/Clinton/Midtown West:
Walking the Border and Avenues of Hell’s Kitchen Day One Hundred and Ninety Four:
I had to split the neighborhood into two parts separated by 10th Avenue as there was so much to see and the complexity of the neighborhood changes on each side.
I swear that Chelsea Papaya has been part of this neighborhood since the 1970’s. I have passed this place a million times and never stopped in to eat. Recently when I was walking around the rim of Manhattan for ‘The Great Saunter” walk, I needed an early start and this place opens at 5:00am (please check their website for the changing hours).
Chelsea Papaya at 171 West 23rd Street
For breakfast that morning I knew I would need to load up on carbohydrates so I ordered a Breakfast platter. I had two very large pancakes with a side of bacon and two scrambled eggs ($7.95) with a medium Papaya drink. It was the best breakfast on this rare cool summer morning.
